Increasingly, wireless personal communications are used to exchange electronic data such as voice, audio, video, emails, photos, etc. Demands for such ubiquitous communications drive development of advanced wireless technologies and systems such as the cognitive radio network (CRN), Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) networks, and so on. In addition to the human-to-human (H2H) communications for the exchange of electronic data, emerging technologies also enable mechanical automation (e.g., the Internet of Things and the smart grid) and improve efficient electronic information exchange. Such communications among machine-type communications (MTC) devices are known as machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. M2M communications can be used in a is variety of areas (e.g., surveillance systems, backup of telephone landlines, asset tracking, navigation, traffic optimization, payment systems, remote monitoring, power systems, smart grid, industrial metering, etc.), can be implemented on a variety of networks, and can deliver business solutions in a cost-effective manner. However, distinct features in M2M communications create diverse challenges such as infrequent transmissions (e.g., MTC devices may send or receive data at possibly low duty cycles), small data transmissions (e.g., MTC devices may send/receive small amounts of data), group-based MTC communications, etc., which warrant special considerations.